Programme £2

20th ANNIVERSARY 1996-2016 A sinister story of superstition, sacrifice and dirty laundry Based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling Adapted by Nobby Dimon Directed by Vivienne Garnett Programme £2 SUPPORTED BY Angels of the North Country Richmond Town Council North Country 20th Anniversary Stats Welcome to our 20th anniversary season Age 20 (First tour May/June 1996) On behalf of the Board I am delighted to Nobby is to be congratulated for holding Touring Productions 31 welcome you to our third production for on to his vision for excellence and ensuring Community Plays 3 our 20th anniversary year. It is an that rural communities have access to Performances 1139 achievement to be celebrating 20 years of North Country Theatre’s theatrical, Total Audience 100,000 + North Country Theatre. I joined the Board educational and Furthest South West Hendred, Oxfordshire back in 2003 and became Chair the site specific work Furthest North Poolewe, Wester Ross following year. It’s been good to have been and the Board are Most visited village hall outside North Yorks Carlops, nr Edinburgh (21) part of such an imaginative and well-loved pleased to have Bishops Castle/Edgton (22) company, that is supported by its audience been able to play a Most visited village hall inside North Yorks Kirklington (22) not just financially, but in many other ways small part in this Regular professional venues include Georgian Theatre Royal, too. Looking back over my numerous success story. Helmsley Arts Centre, Otley Courthouse, Chair’s reports for the AGM’s I have been The Wynd Theatre Melrose, reminded of just how much inventive, Faye Doorbar The Ropewalk, Barton on Humber quality work has been carried out by such a Actor who has appeared in the most plays Mark Cronfield (12) small team. It makes impressive reading. Plus Patrons Educational Projects in schools & colleges 10 Dame Brenda Hale and Prof Julian Farrand National Trust, Fountains Abbey 250 days over 17 years (10,000 children) whose ongoing help, support and encouragement is much valued. Other Site Specific Projects & Street Theatre: Settle Carlisle Railway, Kiplin Hall, Brodsworth Hall x 2, Richmond Castle, The Board Of North Country Theatre Royal Show Stoneleigh, Middleham Castle, Dales Countryside Museum x 2, From those first informal conversations around Yorvik Viking Festival, Ripon Charter Celebrations, The Station Richmond, a kitchen table grew the company which was formally constituted on 31st October 1996. Knaresborough Castle. Designed, cut and animated Labyrinths at The current Board Members are: Faye Doorbar Whitby Abbey, Lindisfarne, Rievaulx, York Minster, Richmond Walking & Book Festival. [Chair], Gillian Howells [Company Secretary], Plus Amanda Cook, Wilma Burniston, Nobby Dimon, Many individual workshops, tutorials, talks and training days. Liz Floyd. We have one full time employee and have employed more than 50 different actors and Twelfth Night, summer 2016 Others who have been on the Board or have actor/teachers, 7 different designer/makers, 4 different musicians, 4 graphic designers. been special advisors are Debbie Walker, Ken Blakeson, Clive World, Mike Potter, Bill Sellars, Donald Cline, Lorna Christie. Andy Thursfield Path to Paradise is proud to have designed Join us at a site specific presentation at North Country Theatre’s Mount Grace Priory, Osmotherley near publicity material since 2000. Northallerton between Saturday 22nd Andy Thursfield | Graphic Designer and Tuesday 25th October 11am - 4pm 01748 829507 See www.english-heritage.org.uk for directions Egil Skallagrimsson, spring 2016 2 3 Frere played Richard Hannay in that first tour computers plus some lighting and sound Sweet and Twenty and was here this summer to play Sir Andrew equipment. The ultimate success of that bid and A brief history of a small scale touring theatre company Aguecheek in Twelfth Night. The show was a the generous support of other sponsors helped great success and had a second longer run in us to become an established part of North 1997 and, as most people now know, went on to Yorkshire’s cultural life. It was that year we North Country Theatre was hatched as an idea would have a chance to survive.” At the time his be a West End, Broadway and International hit. moved into our offices in Rosemary Lane and in 1995 and formally constituted as a Company wife, Gillian Howells, had a “proper” job so they Billed as “the world’s favourite comedy seen by became a Regularly Funded Organisation of the Limited by Guarantee [often called a not for thought they might make ends meet. more than 3 million people”. They could have Arts Council. Our popularity encouraged more profit company] in 1996. There are no owners or He decided to leave Harrogate and give it a go. seen it first in a village hall in North Yorkshire! and more village hall committees to promote shareholders, just a volunteer board and one theatre. Although travelling as far south as employee. The first production The 39 Steps Kitchen Cabinet We took theatre to the audience Oxfordshire and north to the Scottish Highlands, opened at the Georgian Theatre Royal Richmond A group of people met around a kitchen table at So the Company began with a huge success the core audience was around our home region. on May 3rd 1996. But how does a theatre Nobby and Gillian’s house in Richmond, which might have been used to propel it on to People are often surprised to see that the company come in to existence, and how and including Amanda Cook who has been a board bigger and bigger venues but that was not the company can fill halls in Reeth, Catterick, Gilling why has it survived when many do not? member from the very beginning, local journalist vision. “We didn’t just want to perform in village West, Hunton, Bellerby, and Leyburn which are Debbie Walker our first chair, playwright and TV halls as a stepping stone to something ‘better’. all within a few miles of Richmond despite We had a vision and stuck to it script writer Ken Blakeson and Shea Connolly We actually liked the atmosphere, the proximity having already done two nights at the Georgian The idea of a company which took entertaining Drama Officer from what was then called of the audience, the sense of a shared space, the Theatre Royal in Richmond. and intelligent professional theatre out to rural Yorkshire Arts [now Arts Council England, North] fact that actors were the guests of the audience, communities in North Yorkshire and beyond was and local councillor Clive World. They discussed not the other way round. We liked the Popularity without compromise first and foremost the vision of Nobby Dimon. It how the company might work, what sort of hospitality, the strange sort of once a year The company produced original new plays, was a not new idea or a unique vision, but Nobby shows and whether it could attract some grant friendships we developed with regular bookers, adaptations of forgotten classics like Moll had been working as director of Theatre in aid and earn enough from village hall audiences people from South Shropshire to the Scottish Flanders, tongue in cheek comedies and witty Education for Harrogate Theatre for 8 years to pay the wages. Borders. All right sometimes we had to change spoofs like 2001 Space Idiocy and moving serving North Yorkshire Schools, and was ready Later with the help of a £1000 grant from in a shed or sleep on somebody’s floor, historical dramas like Meantime and Home on for a new challenge. He knew the area well and Yorkshire Arts a tour of The 39 Steps was arranged sometimes the set wouldn’t fit the space, the Range. Great authors from Jane Austen to he knew there was a real demand for cultural by ringing up village halls, schools and small sometimes the raffle took twenty minutes, Conan Doyle to Kipling to Ian McEwan were experiences. “If the material was suitable we theatres and negotiating a fee. Neither the sometimes the electricity meter ran out of ten presented with wit and theatrical innovation, and would often play our theatre-in-education work director nor the co-writer of the adaptation pence pieces in the middle of a show, there was often with a local accent, - not just Lorca’s Blood to adult audiences in the evenings and the Simon Corble were paid for that first tour, and the certainly no glamour, but mostly the atmosphere Wedding, but Blood Wedding in Wensleydale, response was positive from Rosedale Abbey to actors worked for less than the recommended was and is brilliant.” The tours got longer and the often with beautiful and ingenious set designs Richmond from Leeming to Langcliffe, the union rate. That’s how we got it started, but audiences bigger. by our regular designer Simon Pell. Many of the audience so keen to enjoy good quality theatre after that we always paid at the union rate and In 1998 we went through the tortuous process of posters scattered around these pages will on their doorsteps rather than travel to Leeds or employed the actors properly rather than offer a an application to the newly available National bring back memories of favourite shows or York or Newcastle that I felt sure a new company “profit share” as some companies did. Thomas Lottery Fund to enable us to buy a specially great performances. adapted automatic van, office furniture and 4 5 We also produced a series of community plays in about Inuit culture and environmental In 2012 during an Arts Council England re-think, wide network of friends, which a large company of volunteer performers destruction, modern art, local archaeology, as like a number of small companies, we lost our supporters, sponsors and worked with professional actors and production well as a 17 year collaboration with the National regular funding but thanks to the close audience will continue to team to stage large scale theatre.

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